Any C & Cs in San Francisco ?

Looks like I might be in S.F. for a weekend in 2-3 weeks and may have some time to kill early Saturday & Sunday mornings. Is there any cars & coffee gatherings, preferably with older/vintage cars, within reasonably short driving distance from the Civic Center area ? Presidio, the Wharf or some park, etc ?

 

There are a few events scheduled for June 4th. Which weekend are you in town?

 

Thanks for replying.
Either that or the following weekend, not quite sure yet which, but was mainly wondering if there’s any weekly, bi-weekly or monthly reoccurring, early morning (5-9 am ?), casual car & coffee type get-togethers in the area one could just drop by if/when time allows.
Not really looking for “events”, per se and probably don’t have time to travel far out of the city.

 

There's the local FCA meet the last Sunday of each month at Coffeebar in Menlo Park at 7:30am

Local motorclub gathering: https://www.siliconvalleymotorclub.com/calendar

Redwood City every 2nd Sunday: https://norcalcarculture.com/events/cars-and-coffee-peninsula/

 

Thanks, but all those are a bit "too far".
As I said, only interested of any within the city or very close and if I were to go "outside", I'd probably head north, over to Sausalito or San Rafael, etc.

 

I think because of the bad roads and limited parking they don't really do any "inside" the city as it's hard to find a large gathering area. The closest one was ocean beach but I don't see it happening anymore.

 

Thanks Joe.
I just thought maybe some might gather at some beach front or park parking areas and since I'll probably be traveling in/visiting with one of my vintage cars with maybe a couple of hours to spare in the mornings, this could be an opportunity to stop by and see other interesting (to me) cars , but it's not the end of the world for me, as I can just cruise around the city sightseeing for those couple of hours.

 

There used to be one at Ocean Beach, it may still be going but their website looks pretty stale: https://norcalcarculture.com/events/ocean-beach-cars-and-coffee/

 

Thanks Fred.
I was hoping for more recent and first-hand experiences, i.e. something like "Me and many or several other guys get together on Sat (or Sun) mornings on a beach/park/pier parking lot X or next to a coffee shop Y on ***** Street usually between 6 and 8 am".
Maybe someone with such info will still see this and reply, but if not, oh well.

 

If you're active on Facebook, there's an area events page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/bayareacarmeetsandevents

There are many impromptu meetups doing exactly what you describe. Someone will post up that they're from out of town or a last minute gathering and people just show up. Of course, they post up regular meets as well. The crowd seems to be mostly import/muscle but there are a fair bit of exotic owners as well. If you're inclined, you could certainly request a meet celebrating your visit

 

Other than this and one other (vintage) car forum, I don't participate in social media, so I guess I just celebrate the visit by myself.

 

No worries. And just to clarify, I wasn't trying to be facetious with my comment. People literally post up that they're in town and want to celebrate with a car meet or even their kids birthday party. It's amazing how many people just show up.

 

While I'm comfortable of being the most important person in the world, I don't need others to acknowledge it, let alone show up to "celebrate" wherever I might be at any given moment.

 

Had a great weekend in S.F. and spent a 2-3 hours early Sunday cruising through East & North shore, i.e. Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Warf, Marina District & The Presidio areas and was surprised how little traffic there was, but more so with numerous cool spots for brief/casual (vintage) car get together’s, yet didn’t encounter any, not even single car(s).

And on my way in to the city Saturday afternoon, I cruised through the entire length of the G.G. Park and while it was relatively crowded at that time, I could see countless of opportune spots for early am car gatherings.

OTOH, wherever I stopped to take photos or walk around in the nice scenery, countless people came to ask questions or take pictures of the car (=91 y.o. hot rod Roadster).

Best part of this trip was Friday & Saturday morning spirited drives on 17, 35, Bear Creek Rd, 9, 84, Pescadero Creek Rd, etc.

On Friday, a little before Noon, I actually experienced one of the coolest and almost surreal encounters ever, while driving through heavily forested & twisty section of Hwy 9, when suddenly I saw a small group of 4-5 vintage cars heading the opposite direction, probably for lunch break in Boulder Creek which I had just left awhile earlier.
The group, what I could see, included a 6C1750 Spyder, a 250 SWB, 250 Lusso, (perhaps another prewar open car of some kind ?), followed by another SWB.
The occupants (probably playing hookie for the day) of each car waved as they went by and I did the same.
Just wish I would’ve had my onboard video camera with me and on to capture this brief, but supercool moment.

 

It's no Manhattan but San Fransico is a pretty compact city. Lots of residents don't have garages and if they do, they only have space for one daily driver type car. The population of San Francisco is 800,000 while the population of The Bay Area is 8,000,000. Most of us (with our multi-car garages), and most car events, are outside of San Francisco proper.

It is so cool that you drove a 1932 all the way up! You are right: we SHOULD gather more in San Francisco itself. It is a spectacularly beautiful venue. As you may have seen, San Francisco is experiencing a lot of social issues right now so it isn't the magic place it used to be (and will be again someday). Virtually all car events are outside The City. The mother of all Cars and Coffees was at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, which collapsed under its own weight when 1,600 cars would show up every month.

 

Thanks. I left the city this morning and have driven 900 miles on this trip since I started Wednesday. By the time I get home tomorrow, total should be about 1100.
While I saw plenty of economic and social issue concerns, especially in the business district and during the couple of mile walk back to my hotel there from the civic center yesterday evening, I was surprised Sunday morning how tranquil the aforementioned shoreline areas seemed and if I lived outside the city, I could easily see them worthy of occasional early Sunday drive destinations, especially if the weather would be as mice as I was fortunate to experience this weekend.
And yes, I can understand any parking/storage space for cars in S.F. being at premium and outside the means of most enthusiasts.

 

San Francisco is NOT car friendly; politically, geographically, or parking-wise. I was born & raised there as a total gear head, and started with street rods (I still have my 50s style '33 Ford PU, which was my DD in the city for over 25 years!) There used to be a great C&C out at the pier next to Red's Java House on the Embarcadero. I don't know what happened to that though. There is one that happens out at Ocean Beach, but that can be cold, windy, & nasty; plus NO bathrooms!
I moved away from the City some years ago, and am now on 35. You probably drove past my house! The SWB probably belonged to John Mozart if they were real. He does local drives with this buddy's in the vicinity. The SF Academy of Art takes on visitors & tours if RSVD in advance. They have quite a collection, but it has recently been whittled down.
Sorry I missed you, RF.

 

@redfred84, if you’re on 35 I probably drove by your place twice, once on Friday, heading North and once on Saturday, heading South.
I was treated to a private tour of Candy Store Friday evening by S.N., followed by a great Italian dinner in Burlingame.
Was that red Boano there yours?

And in case you missed it in my earlier comment, there were TWO SWB’s (one dark red, one dark color black/blue/gray ?), along with a Lusso and what I thought was a 30/31 or so Alfa- Romeo 6C1750 Spyder, in that small group of cars I encountered on 9 around midday Friday. Absolute treat to see them on the road.

I just got back home with 1101 miles added to odometer and the week long road trip vacation was great.

Heading down towards Embarcadero around 8am Sunday:
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Yes, the Red Boano is mine. So glad you were able to see the Candy Store. I would have offered if I wasn't already on road trip with my XK 120; the 120 Rendez-vous! I also understood that you were strictly SF bound, and not interested in anything outside due to schedule? Did you make it to Roy Brizio's, Bruce Canepas?

 

My trip was mainly a leisurely road trip vacation with only two pre-scheduled appointments/visit, one being the Candy Store & dinner invitation from by S.N. (the blue Daytona in the C.S.), the other was a premier performance of an opera in S.F. Sunday.
Rest of the trip was just enjoying drives on various scenic routes and visiting (incl. dinners and overnight stays) with some car guy friends along the way.

I've been to Canepas place before and even done some custom glass work for them (on a aftermarket spider conversion 275 GTB they re-constructed back to original Berlinetta configuration, for example).

Never been to Brizios, but what I've seen and heard, their approach to Hot/Street Rods doesn't really align with my interests.
I view their products as sort of custom built, high dollar kit cars with other than general appearance and perhaps the title having almost nothing to do with real vintage cars.

 

I went to the Enzo film event in February.
The blue daytona at the candy store is SOOO sexy (attached)
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And the blue paint is original!

 

... along with all interior materials and vast majority of all other undercarriage, engine bay and chrome/trim finishes.
Quite good example for authenticity reference (I took several thousand photos over the 15+ years).

 

for some reason the experienced judges at concorso italiano passed it over for the originality award. gave the award to a 330gtc iirc.

 

Possibly because the 330 GTC was better preserved, presented, had more "curb appeal", owner favored by the judges or any number of other "reason(s)"...
... but I'm not going to loose sleep over it and apparently current owner didn't either.
If anything, I commend him for driving it more than most owners do. IIRC, over 1K miles during last summer.